Airport-parking Plan Draws Fire

May 20, 1986|By Robin Foster of The Sentinel Staff

Ground-transportation companies that use Orlando International Airport's loading zone to ferry passengers to hotels, car-rental lots and other destinations said Monday that they intend to fight a new fee system that some say would increase ninefold the cost of doing business at the airport.

The Orlando Aviation Authority is scheduled to vote on the new parking fees Wednesday. The new system would scrap the use of annual access cards and rates of $1 an hour for certain vehicles in favor of hourly rates ranging from $7.50 to $25.

Carolyn Fennell, spokeswoman for the authority, said the rate increases are designed to ease traffic in the airport's two commercial loading zones. ''We're trying to generate more movement and cut down on congestion,'' she said. ''There is no intent at all to put anyone out of business.'' The purpose of the change is to make the loading zone ''pay for itself,'' she said.

Fennell noted that the authority is changing a system instituted in 1981; air-passenger traffic at the airport has increased 30 percent since then. The airport has only 24 spaces for commercial vehicles to use, she said.

But the companies, which operate limousines, tour buses and courtesy vans for hotels and car-rental agencies, said the rate increases appear to be designed to cut down on the number of commercial vehicles using the parking zones and to raise additional revenue for the airport. They said the higher fees will hurt business and lead to traffic hazards.

James Shapiro, owner of American National Rent-A-Car, told his peers at a meeting Monday in the Airport Sheraton that he now pays $480 a year for each of the four vans he sends to the loading zone. Under the new system, he said, he would have to pay an estimated $10,000 a year for each vehicle.

Shapiro also said that the new loading-zone time limit -- which gives each vehicle five free minutes -- would create a traffic hazard as vehicles race to get into and out of the airport. ''I see a major safety problem,'' he said.

Fennell said it now costs $805,600 a year to run the commercial zones, which took in $119,000 in revenue last year from the sale of access cards and fees from limousines, which pay hourly rates.

Fennell said the new system would cost $999,500 to operate and would take in an estimated $1 million annually.

The rate increases would discourage commercial vehicles from staying in the loading zone for more than five minutes by charging from $1.50 to $5 for every additional 10 minutes, depending on the size of the vehicle. The first five minutes would be free.